Saturday, 8 January 2022, was cloudy. Sunday, 9 January, was clear, but I did not open the observatory. Monday, 10 January, was very windy with clouds. Tuesday, 11 January, was cloudy with a forecast of continuing cloudy skies and rain later in the week. I put the Dome Cover ON.

Wednesday, 12 January, I was a guest speaker on the Explore Alliance Live show Firstlight Chronicles to talk about the IDA Dark Sky Places certification process.

Click the video to view a replay

The rain forecasts kept changing, but the sky continued to be cloudy. It finally rained Tuesday afternoon, 18 January, 0.14". Due to the cloudy sky I missed imaging the close approach of Near Earth Object Asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1 on Tuesday. Wednesday, 19 January, was cloudy with a brief light rainshower (0.01"). With a forecast of two clear nights, I removed the Dome Cover Thursday afternoon, 20 January.

Open: Thursday, 20 January 2022, 1820 MST Temperature: 61°F

Session: 1711 Conditions: Clear

Equipment:
12" f/8 LX600 w/StarLock
2" 24mm UWA eyepiece
Focal reducer

Camera:
D850 DSLR

SYNCed the observatory clock to WWV time signals.

1826 MST: LX600 ON, StarLock OFF, High Precision OFF.

Viewed Jupiter, 102X.

Prepared D850 DSLR for imaging.

1852 MST: Wi-Fi ON.

Used SkySafari 7 Pro to GOTO Near Earth Object (NEO) Asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1. Saw nothing obviously moving, 102X. The asteroid had its closest approach on Tuesday, 18 January, so would be further away and fainter (Mag. +12.7) this night.

Mounted the D850 at prime focus + focal reducer, focused on Deneb, and locked the 12" primary mirror. Slewed to the asteroid.

1909 MST: Wi-Fi OFF.

1910 MST: StarLock ON.

Began imaging NEO Asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1, StarLock autoguided, 5 minutes, ISO 6400. Took a second image 10 minutes later. Asteroid movement was very obvious in the cropped images.

I then did 1 minute exposures separated by 2 minutes. The top image is a merge of 5 images, the bottom image shows the movement.

I then slewed to Procyon and checked the focus; it was good. Slewed to the coordinates of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Took two StarLock autoguided images, 5 minutes, ISO 6400, separated by 30 minutes. The cropped images below show JWST! Unfortunately, it was located at the edge of the field-of-view and there is some distortion of the stars. The rising waning gibbous Moon brightened the sky for the second exposure. The top image shows the position of JWST very close to a star. The second shows the JWST had moved slightly to left and down.

2021 MST: saw a nice green meteor pass from Canis Major to near Gemini. It left no trail.

2032 MST: StarLock OFF.

The eastern sky was fairly bright from the waning gibbous Moon.

Viewed M79 (globular cluster), M42 (Orion Nebula), and M41 (open cluster), 102X.

2044 MST: LX600 OFF.

Close: Thursday, 20 January 2022, 2053 MST Temperature: 48°F

Session Length: 2h 33m Conditions: Clear

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